


The Ride Along

by Bluewolf458



Series: A Bad Time of Year [3]
Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 14:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20779775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Blair joins Major Crime as a ride along





	The Ride Along

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third and final part of 'A Bad Time of Year', a story written for Sentinel Bingo in March 2018

The Ride Along

by Bluewolf

When Jim arrived at the PD, Simon had not come in. Jim thought for a moment then went to the Captain's office to speak to Joel.

"Would it inconvenience you very much if I took a few personal days between now and Christmas? Starting today?"

"You, wanting time off?" Joel's voice dripped astonishment. He glanced out of the window. "Well, the sky hasn't fallen, but... "

"Daryl had an essay to do for one of his lecturers. Simon hadn't told him just how ill Joan was - probably Joan didn't want him to know - but he'd realized, and he made a total mess of the essay. Simon mentioned it to me and I went to see the man.

"As it happened, he'd realized something had been bothering Daryl, and he's going to give Daryl the chance to redo the essay. But something happened while I was there, and Dr. Sandburg lent me a book that provided me with some insight into the incident. I need to go back today to return the book, but I also want to discuss with him some of the other points in it. I realize I can't expect him to abandon his responsibilities to his students, so I'll have to fall in with his timetable."

Joel looked at him, a slight frown on his face. "Is this something to do with the problems you sometimes have - ?" He was one of the few people who knew that Jim sometimes had problems with over-acute senses.

"Yes."

"And you think this book - and the lecturer's knowledge of it - might help you?"

"I hope so."

"Then take the time with my blessing."

"Thanks, Joel."

Jim left the Captain's office, crossed to his desk, spent a short hour making sure that all his work was up to date, then picked up Sandburg's book and walked out.

***

He knew that he had probably been lucky, the previous day, that Sandburg hadn't been teaching when he went to see him. He was fully prepared to have to wait if the professor had a class when he arrived to return the book.

Sandburg, however, was in his office and showed no sign of moving from it in the immediate future.

"Hello, Detective," he said cheerfully.

Jim put the book down on the desk, and Sandburg looked almost quizzically at him, saying nothing.

"Thanks for the almost sleepless night," Jim said, straight-faced. 

Blair, on the other hand, grinned widely. "_Almost _sleepless?" he asked.

And for some reason Jim found himself grinning as widely. "I actually finished reading it about 2 and went to bed, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. But... what you said, about using two senses at once - I couldn't see anything in the book to indicate where you got that idea from?"

"I told you the subject fascinated me. Since I first read it, I've been on a number of expeditions to - well, study the way of life of some of the few tribes who are still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. And I always asked about tribal guardians. The tribes weren't always very forthcoming, but when they saw I knew what I was speaking about, it's amazing how much some of them told me. And the shaman of one tribe told me a lot.

"I've always hoped to find a sentinel, but, well, from what some of the tribes told me, I'd begun to doubt that I ever would. I know that clatter yesterday was an insult to your ears, but you have no idea how much hope our conversation after that gave me that I'd finally found a real, five-heightened senses sentinel here in Cascade. Not just someone with maybe three senses actually heightened and the others not much more than top of normal range, but someone with all five senses heightened."

"My father... " Jim faltered. "He didn't want a son who was a freak... All my life, I..."

"Wouldn't admit even to yourself how well you could see or hear?"

"Even eating can be something of a chore," Jim muttered. "That was something else that annoyed him - how finicky an eater I was." He hesitated. "Doctor... "

"Yes?"

"Is... is there anything you could suggest that might help me? I didn't have too many problems when I was in the army, but there are times... "

Blair looked thoughtful. "Is there anything in particular that triggers those 'times'?"

"I can't be sure."

"I'd guess there has to be something... It would help if I could - well, observe you at your work for a week or two. I might see something - not exactly a pattern, but the kind of thing that draws you in, so to speak."

Jim thought for a moment. "It's possible for someone to get a ninety-day observer's pass - we've had several young men or women who were considering a job with the police but wanted to see what it's like before they committed to going to the Police Academy. Or writers who are plotting a police or detective novel can get a pass, letting them ride along in a patrol car to see what the work actually involves. They don't even have to actually write it; I can think of one budding writer who rode with a friend of mine who changed his mind when he realized exactly how much routine and sometimes boredom there can be in the job. I believe he did put his time with us to use and did write a book - but from the other side - from the perspective of a member of the public; and he never did write that police novel. So there would be no problem if you wanted to observe me on the job. But you have your responsibilities here - would you be able to get time off from Rainier?"

"Easier than you might think," Blair said. "In Anthropology, we often want - need - time off to go on an expedition. That could involve months off. Okay, we'd be expected to write a paper about it, but a paper published in one of the anthropology magazines by Dr. X, Y university, is drawing attention to his university. Or a book - that's even more prestigious. I could get three months off, no bother at all, though at the end of that time I would be expected to write up something involving what I was observing. All right, I'd actually be observing you and looking for ways to help you control your senses - but there's no law says I should write about that, or tell the police that. It might help, though, if your immediate superior is aware of it, so that I'd be left with you.

"I could give as my reason for wanting an observer's pass something like planning to write a paper on the work of the police. I imagine you're as aware as I am that some members of the public think you're all jackbooted thugs throwing your weight about. My paper would seek to correct that. I wouldn't give away any of what you might call trade secrets, like... oh, how you might find evidence; nothing I write is likely to help criminals commit more unsolvable crimes. And I wouldn't use real names. The odd article I've done about 'civilized' cultures, as opposed to hunter-gatherer tribe, I've used color names - Black, Brown, Green, Grey, White - Reid in any of its spellings - that's Red."

"We do have a Detective Brown," Jim said.

"Okay, so I'd skip Brown. Then if needed there are the old very common names like Smith. Or the ones that indicate other jobs - Farmer, Weaver, Clerk, Shepherd, Thatcher, Hunter, Fletcher... " He grinned at the slightly glazed look in Jim's eyes as he listed possibilities, especially 'Fletcher', a job that would be pretty well unknown to most people.

***

Both men were correct. It was easy for Blair to get time off from Rainier to do research on the police department; it was easy for him to get a ninety day pass to ride with a detective, and Simon, called in about it, was more than willing to go to bat for him after the sympathetic way he handled Daryl.

(Daryl’s rewritten essay was completely in line with his usual work, and Blair had unhesitatingly given him an A for it.)

***

Blair was surprised how much he enjoyed working with Jim, how much he enjoyed the challenge of looking for the clues that would solve a crime. Certainly it was Jim who faced that challenge, but Blair found himself, almost from the start, trying to see what he could discover, and offering his suggestions to Jim. And after one such suggestion, made in the second week of his time with Jim, proved to be very helpful, the other detectives in Major Crime began asking him for an opinion on the evidence in their cases.

He gave it cheerfully, and by time he was halfway through the period of his ride long, the solve rate for Major Crime in general had risen by 2% - and for Jim, by 4%. The others ascribed it to Blair's being with Jim all the time, though Blair - and Jim - knew that what was making the extra difference there was that Jim was using his senses to look for evidence - and his ability to use his senses was improving all the time.

Early in May, with two weeks of his ride along to go, Blair was surprised when Rhonda told him that the Chief of Police wanted to see him. He was inclined to suspect that Warren was a little annoyed that he had been offering suggestions and was going to remind him that he was a ride along, there to get information on the work of the police so that he could write a paper, and not a detective. He was more than surprised, therefore, when Warren greeted him cheerfully, even enthusiastically.

"Ah, Dr. Sandburg! Good morning!"

"Good morning, sir."

"And how have you been enjoying your time with Major Crime?"

"Very much, sir. I've been learning a lot."

Warren chuckled. "And from what I hear, Major Crime has been learning from you?"

Blair decided that his best course of action was to assume that Warren was planning on letting him down lightly. "I'm sorry, sir - it comes with being an anthropologist and a teacher. We're always looking for ways of showing the students how to interpret what they see - "

"I realize that, Doctor. Don't think for a moment that I'm objecting to the help you've been giving the detectives. In fact, I've been wondering if I could persuade you to leave Rainier and come to work here, permanently."

Blair's jaw dropped. "Permanently?"

"As... as a sort of consultant and profiler combined. You've mostly been offering suggestions based on evidence the detectives have gathered, but I understand that in several cases you've suggested what kind of criminal they should be looking for, or where the next attack by a serial criminal would probably be, and that was responsible for at least two arrests.

"I understand that currently you earn about $22,000 a year; we would offer you a starting salary of $23,500."

The salary alone tempted Blair; but... "Would I be able to stay - officially - with Major Crime? I'm enjoying being there and riding along with Detective Ellison."

"That could be arranged, though you would have to be available to advise detectives in other departments as needed."

Yes, that was reasonable. A consultant/profiler wouldn't be limited to just one department. "I'll have to give Rainier a month's notice, starting two weeks from now because I'm officially on a leave of absence to gather material for a paper on the work of the police. And in case you're worried about what I include, I've already agreed with Detective Ellison that he will read it once it's finished, before I submit it anywhere."

Warren smiled. "From what I've heard about you, that's not unexpected.

"All right - your ride along has two weeks to go. After that you return to Rainier and give them a month's notice. That will take us into June... When does the university break begin?"

"The summer semester starts in June, runs into July. Then the new academic year begins in August."

"All right. Suppose you leave Rainier at the end of the semester in July. Would you be able to work with us at least part time between now and then?"

"I don't see why not," Blair replied. He was thinking fast. "Would it be possible for me to get three or four days off during the year to do guest lectures at Rainier if they asked it?" He knew that Dr Stoddart, head of the anthropology department, would be happy for him to maintain that much contact with the university.

"You will have holiday entitlement," Warren said. "If you want to spend some of those days at Rainier, that's up to you."

_Nice bit of managerial double-think,_ Blair decided. But at the same time, he couldn't blame Warren. He was being offered a very nice starting salary, but of course he would be expected to earn it. Absence because of illness was one thing; absence because he was doing another job, even for only three or four days, was something else entirely.

"I hadn't realized I'd have holiday entitlement," he said.

Warren smiled. "I know it's not mandatory, but we give five to ten days a year depending on length of service."

"That's very generous," Blair murmured.

"It's a matter of practicality," Warren replied. "Working five or even sometimes six day weeks can be very tiring. A few extra days off per year can make a big difference to efficiency. The leave days can be taken one at a time or in one 'lump', so to speak. All you'll need to do is give Captain Banks reasonable notice that you're taking a personal day."

And so Blair contacted Rainier and submitted his resignation with effect from the end of the summer semester, while at the same time telling Dr. Stoddart that he would be available to give five lectures a year, if needed. Or even ten, if he gave two on each of five days.

***

In mid-June, Blair - who had successfully submitted his paper on the police to a magazine - officially started work there, still as Jim's partner, as a consultant/profiler at Cascade PD's central precinct. He had a feeling that it would be a more satisfying career than teaching - although he knew he had been a good teacher, he had often felt frustrated at how little real interest some students appeared to have in anthropology. He had often suspected that at least some of them were using University as an excuse to delay, for as long as possible, getting a job. Now, he thought, he would be doing a real and useful job. And in addition he would still be working with Jim; with his sentinel.

And that was something he was more than happy to do. 


End file.
